SM Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Moon Book Red String “Already writing love letters so audaciously…”

I have to say, getting on board with a license really makes it easy to be unrestrained.

Even Zhu Shihao, with her temperament, couldn’t help but complain: “Young Master, can you be a little more restrained? Shasha and Chestnut, their mouths are about to stretch to their ears looking at me.”

After being looked at meaningfully for a long time, she couldn’t maintain her composure and went to ask Shasha, only to receive a onomatopoeic “hee hee” in response.

“Wait a moment, Shihao-jie, I’ll give you a more direct view.”

Watching her raise her phone and go behind her, Zhu Shihao realized something.

No way, no way.

Shasha, seeing her widen her eyes looking at the photo, comforted her with a forced smile, “It’s alright, it’s alright, everything’s above board, it’s all proof of love.”

After sending the photo to herself, Zhu Shihao decisively deleted it, returned the phone to her, and gave a half-smile.

“Thanks for your comfort.”

And so, that photo became evidence of wanton behavior when presented to Tan Zhi Xu that evening.

The Young Master, presented with the evidence, didn’t think there was a problem at all, and was extremely calm and collected.

“So? What’s the problem? It’s just a little bit of back that’s exposed, I’m not so petty.”

Zhu Shihao: “??”

Am I talking about that?

“Can you stop always biting and nibbling on me and leaving marks?”

Tan Zhi Xu glanced at the hickeys in the photo, commonly known as strawberry marks, and thought the color was quite nice.

“I didn’t bite you, I generally don’t bite you, except…even then, it was gentle.”

As he spoke, his gaze moved downwards, his unspoken meaning very clear.

Zhu Shihao subconsciously blocked herself, only to react when she heard him chuckle beside her ear, and twisted him in response.

“Leaving them is one thing, but why didn’t you tell me this morning?”

She had clearly changed her clothes and even spun around in front of him asking if she looked good.

Tan Zhi Xu didn’t change his expression, and said lightly: “It’s just a hickey on the back of your neck, it’s not like it’s something shameful.”

Seeing her glare, Tan Zhi Xu’s eyebrows twitched, and he lifted her chin.

“Allow me to remind you, our underground relationship is over, we are now in the newlywed stage, you are Miss Zhu Shihao, and also Mrs. Tan Zhi Xu.”

Zhu Shihao deflated: “Okay, okay, I get it.”

She softly fell into his arms, and Tan Zhi Xu put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head: “Where do you want to go tomorrow?”

In the two months since they got their marriage certificate, with Tan Zhi Xu and Xu Ting’s early arrangements, the wedding photos had already been taken, and they’d been traveling domestically and abroad for over half a month.

The wedding banquet was originally planned to be outdoors, but because Zhu Shihao chose a Chinese-style wedding, they finally chose a Chinese-style hotel.

There wasn’t much left for them to worry about or do themselves at this stage, and the two returned to their normal lives, a cycle of going to work – going home – sleeping – going to work.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Shihao raised her head and suggested: “Let’s go home for a meal tomorrow, give Mom and Dad a surprise.”

Tomorrow was the weekend, Zhu Yingqing would definitely make something delicious to improve Liu Ruoyin’s meals.

Tan Zhi Xu naturally had no objections, and rubbed her head: “Okay, let’s freeload.”

However, no one expected that besides Zhu Yingqing and Liu Ruoyin receiving a surprise, Tan Zhi Xu would also get a “sur-prise.”

After accompanying Zhu Yingqing to the market to buy extra groceries, the young couple were chased out of the kitchen, and Zhu Yingqing tied on an apron: “Alright, you two go play.”

After sitting for a while, Zhu Shihao received a call from Shasha.

Tan Zhi Xu leaned against the sofa and watched her for a while, then called out to her: “Shihao.”

He pointed to the bedroom.

Listening to Shasha talk about the pattern-making situation, Zhu Shihao just nodded perfunctorily.

Letting out a “tsk” sound from his nose, Tan Zhi Xu leisurely got up, went into Zhu Shihao’s room and looked around, stopping in front of the bookcase.

Boredly admiring the things placed inside, he opened the cabinet door without any sense of being an outsider and pinched the doll’s face.

After looking it over from top to bottom, his gaze landed on that row of comics.

Back then, she had borrowed someone else’s comic book and read it with teary eyes. Tan Zhi Xu tore off a tissue to wipe her tears, scoffed at it, but still bought her an entire set online to prevent her from being anxious and having to queue to borrow books.

He didn’t know what was so good about those things, just endless, speechless, contrived adolescent angst of young men and women.

He didn’t understand, but Zhu Shihao liked it, so he bought it for her.

He randomly pulled out a book, not because he wanted to read it, but just as an unconscious action.

Boredly thinking, was it these things that broke her brain, so she still did that thing of writing love letters in her third year of high school?

The comic book, not much bigger than the palm of his hand, was well-kept, but after so many years the corners were a little yellowed.

His large hand held the spine of the book, and the gap that couldn’t be closed revealed its presence.

His movements paused, and his thoughts also paused.

There was a strange sense of familiarity.

Before he could think about it, before he could act, the comic automatically opened along the gap.

Staring at this light pink envelope, Tan Zhi Xu was expressionless.

After a silent two seconds, he raised his hand, took out the envelope, and carried it, along with the comic book in his hand, to the desk and sat down.

Putting down the comic book, his long legs were cramped under the table, and he was still slowly opening the envelope.

The “To:” line was still missing, and the letter went straight to the point.

After reading just one line, he realized that this was the formal version of that draft from back then, and he could still see that it had indeed been revised, just like her painstaking editing back then.

Four or five hundred words, the whole thing could be read in just two minutes, he could even go through the wording, sentence structure, and rhetorical techniques in his mind.

Holding these two thin pieces of letter paper, he was no longer just expressionless.

Tan Zhi Xu’s face was cold, and even after ten years, his gaze was still gloomy, coldly scraping over those adjectives.

After a long while, a cold laugh that was completely out of tune with the warm decorations sounded in the quiet room.

Over the years, he had always had a deep impression of that draft, and he had always thought it was because of his good memory.

However, at this moment he understood.

Whether it was the eighteen-year-old Tan Zhi Xu or the twenty-eight-year-old Tan Zhi Xu, whether it was unrelated to love or related to love.

What he always cared about was that someone else occupied Zhu Shihao’s attention, that her little space in her heart still accommodated the intrusion of other wild men.

He had thought countless times that they had no possibility, that they were already in the past.

But in fact, he had always cared to death.

So, who the hell was this bastard?

He dialed A Dong’s phone: “Didn’t there used to be a kind of pen that wrote invisibly? Find me one, mainly I need the light.”

A Dong was at a loss: “Huh? What…”

Before he could finish speaking, the other party hung up the phone neatly, and A Dong was even more confused.

Tan Zhi Xu, having purely released a random sentence, threw the phone away casually, making a sound as it hit the tabletop. He didn’t even glance at it, let alone feel sorry for it.

Scanning over the words line by line, he gritted his teeth, his eyes as cold as knives, wishing he could tear up the person and the paper together.

“Already writing love letters so audaciously, why not write more clearly.”

How could a letter not have a recipient? She should have written out the class name, the date of birth, the ID number, and the home address all at once. How convenient that would be.

“Where’s my lighter, let’s toast it a little, if that doesn’t work, I’ll just put it in the water to put out the fire.”

Of course, it was a joke, but after unconsciously looking at it again, Tan Zhi Xu clenched his fists, and hearing the sound of cicadas outside, he was extremely irritable, but his voice was calm to the point of coldness.

“It’s so noisy, the more you revise it, the more you have to say, is it?”

Zhu Shihao, you better give me a thousand or eight hundred words of praise and confession.

After calming down a bit, Tan Zhi Xu gradually calmed down, but only on the surface.

He folded the letter paper back along the creases and put it back in the envelope, his movements were a little rough, but he still maintained his rationality and didn’t touch this love letter, hating it in his heart, and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

It wasn’t a suitable occasion to talk about the past, he slowly got up, picked up the comic book, and put it back in the distance. Almost as soon as the book fell into place, there was the sound of the door opening, followed by her voice.

“Zhi Xu.”

She always liked to call his name, she used to do it too, calling his name before saying anything, whether there was something or not.

“Yeah.” Tan Zhi Xu took a step back and turned to look at her.

“Are you…how come you’re…”

Zhu Shihao walked closer, raised her face slightly and looked at him, feeling that he seemed a little strange, but as soon as she had the thought, she took a closer look and he was as normal as usual.

She felt a subtle strangeness: “What are you doing?”

Hiding all tremors in his heart, Tan Zhi Xu touched her head, his expression light: “Looking at these messy things you keep.”

His gaze swept over the things in the bookcase at just the right time, his meaning was very obvious.

Zhu Shihao was unconvinced: “That only means my memories are colorful, how can you say they’re messy?”

They were clearly all precious treasures.

“Besides, a lot of these were gifts from you.”

They contained the memories between them, they were precious keepsakes and souvenirs of time.

Thinking of this, Tan Zhi Xu’s mood improved a little, and looking at these things again, all he saw was his occupation of Zhu Shihao’s life.

His expression softened a little, and he raised his hand to cover her cheek, his thumb pressed on her delicate red lips, his strength was not heavy, but it carried a possessive meaning, his gaze was deep and dignified, showing a domineering and unquestionable possessiveness.

He emphasized his tone, his voice low: “You are mine, Shihao, you are mine.”

“You’re right.” Zhu Shihao looked at him strangely, “But why did you suddenly switch styles and start declaring your sovereignty?”

Remembering something, her gaze glanced at the corner of the cabinet, her face showing a few points of surprise and indecision: “You wouldn’t have gone to look at those love letters again, would you?”

Tan Zhi Xu paused, and couldn’t help but give a cold laugh.

“It’s not those.”

It was just one.

Now that he thought about it, he was still being conservative when he saw that box of love letters last year. What was all that about being in too good of a mood and being afraid of getting carried away so he’d come and take a look. There was no need for that.

Putting Zhu Shihao’s handwritten love letter at home, it was as if there was an iron hammer over his head to strike him down if he got even slightly carried away.

Even though Tan Zhi Xu’s emotions were stable to the point of not being overexcited, and indifference was always the protective color for his emotions, Zhu Shihao still keenly noticed that something was wrong with him, and secretly glanced at him several times.

Her actions were secretive, but not too secretive, her intention to observe and find differences was quite obvious.

Taking advantage of the absence of the two parents, Tan Zhi Xu placed his large hand on the top of her head and turned her face back a little, his tone was plain but tinged with helplessness.

“Don’t look at me like a thief, Mom and Dad will think I did something to you.”

Zhu Shihao wrinkled her nose and poked her chin: “But you’re a little weird.”

He took her hand away, saw a small crescent-shaped nail mark on her chin, and subconsciously smoothed it with his fingertip as if to comfort her, and very calmly asked her in return: “Am I?”

Unfortunately, this trick didn’t work on Zhu Shihao.

She looked him over again, nodded, and affirmed with a serious face: “You are.”

Tan Zhi Xu stared at her with slightly drooping eyelids for a while, then suddenly a low laugh escaped his throat, and he pinched her face.

“Then I’ll settle the score with you when we get back.”

Zhu Shihao: “??”

“What did I do that you want to settle the score with me?”

What kind of score could be settled whenever he felt like it? She was so wronged!

Tan Zhi Xu glanced at her and snorted lightly: “Old scores.”

Old scores?

She opened her mouth to say something, but out of the corner of her eye she saw her parents coming over, and swallowed the words at her lips.